Skillset’s VFX handbook provides VFX talent with roadmap to future success

press release from Skillset, predominantly for VFX, a 30 page book to down load from the skillset site.
Skillset has set a new benchmark for visual effects (VFX) education in the UK with the launch of an industry-authored guide, The Core Skills of VFX, yesterday (Tuesday, 31 May).



The Core Skills of VFX is a comprehensive, modular guide to best practice in VFX education and training that draws on the knowledge and advice of more than 60 of the UK’s top VFX professionals from many of the UKs leading companies.



The handbook, which will be provided free to all universities and colleges across the UK, has been designed to give course tutors in-depth guidance on the skills that the next generation of VFX talent will need to keep our industry at the leading edge.



The modular nature of the handbook will allow institutions to embed specific elements into their current courses, or use it in entirety to create brand new, industry-focused degree courses. It also contains a section for students, The VFX Core Skills Student Primer, with a guide to the core skills the industry needs – from technical elements to softer, often overlooked skills such as teamwork and meeting the client brief.



Speaking at the event last night, Managing Director of Double Negative, Alex Hope, said: “This handbook introduces a new way for us all to work together – it is an important development that will mean many new and productive relationships between universities and our industry.”



Film producer and Chair of Skillset’s Film Skills Council, Iain Smith, said: “By clearly setting out the skills that industry needs, we look to guide, influence and inspire tutors in their approach to the future design and content of degree courses. We also hope to inspire our future generation of creative and technical talent, all of which will ultimately have a positive impact on the industry.”



The release of this handbook will complement and drive Skillset’s industry-endorsed accreditation programme, which will soon signpost the courses that provide the most up-to-date, industry-facing education and training.



Skillset’s lead on VFX projects, Saint John Walker, said: “By presenting the advice of industry in a form that universities either embed directly into their current courses, or use to create new courses, we will significantly reduce the time it takes to get quality courses off the ground. The industry has asked us to change the landscape of VFX tuition in the UK, and there’s no time to waste. This industry-authored Handbook will set the scene and pace for a new generation of home grown talent.”



The Core Skills of VFX is the latest in a series of major initiatives and awards designed by Skillset to improve the quality of VFX talent emerging from UK universities. Skillset has recently awarded licenses for Nuke software to a selection of Film and Media Academies and accredited courses and is funding a programme to train tutors in the most up-to-date VFX skills, and enable on-line professional coaching for VFX students. These initiatives, and more that will be launched in the coming months, come in the wake of the Livingstone-Hope “Next-Gen” review and will transform the landscape of VFX teaching in the UK.



For more information about the The Core Skills of VFX, and to download your own copy, please visit: www.skillset.org/vfxhandbook.

very good calendar that could be a group template

super Calendar from super deluxe - Tokyo < here > I propose to suggest to L3 that this may be a good model to follow for their one page link. I like the layout with a column on the right with short synopsis picture and link...

Elevator Pitch

the elevator pitch builder the elevator pitch is a phrase evolved to summarise the cold pitch to financiers etc of an idea in the length of time it takes for an elevator to ascend or descend - 30 seconds to two minutes to hook and enthuse your backer into your idea... An elevator pitch is often used by an entrepreneur pitching an idea to a venture capitalist or angel investor to receive funding. Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea by the quality of its elevator pitch and will ask entrepreneurs for their elevator pitches in order to quickly weed out bad ideas and weak teams. Elevator pitches are also used in many other situations.
neat
nice premise.
a good elevator pitch stimulates the listener...

Der Lauf der Dinge (the way things go) 1987

< the way things go > Inside a warehouse, a precarious 70-100 feet long structure has been constructed using various items. When this is set in motion, a chain reaction ensues. Fire, water, law of gravity as well as chemistry determine the life-cycle of objects - of things. It brings about a story concerning cause and effect, mechanism and art, improbability and precision. Peter Fischli, David Weiss.

in memory of Masahiro Katayama

Catherine Munroe Hoates writes a good obituary In Memory of Masahiro Katayama (片山 雅博, 1955-2011)< here >
"Among Katayama’s greatest accomplishments was his supervision of the New Animation Animation DVD series for Geneon Universal. This invaluable series includes the works not only of key Japanese art animation figures such as Kihachiro Kawamoto, Tadanari Okamoto, Yoji Kuri, Osamu Tezuka and Koji Yamamura, but also some fine DVD collections of world animation figures including Yuri Norstein, Norman McLaren, Jiří Trnka, Frédéric Back, and Aleksandr Petrov. These DVDs and boxsets are all accompanied by informative essays about the animators written by Katayama himself."

New animation series, Geneon jp

Petition

The European Commission under President Barroso's leadership is considering ending the MEDIA Programme as it currently exists. This decision would have a very negative impact on all of the European audiovisual industry, which benefits from the numerous funds offered by this programme.

sign the petition, and spread the word < here >
"We, the European professionals of animation film for television and cinema, are extremely concerned by the disastrous consequences on the economic and cultural level, which the calling into question of the MEDIA Programme will give rise to in our sector....We categorically refuse the proposed abolition of the MEDIA Programme with its succession of disastrous consequences in the medium and long term, or any other form of administrative curtailment, namely the inclusion of the current MEDIA Programme within another of the Commission’s programmes."

the point of humanities

read this Article by Alain de Botton. < here > from a point of view on the BBC. "It should be the job of a university education to tease out the therapeutic and illuminative aspects of culture, so that we can emerge from a period of study as slightly less disturbed, selfish, unempathetic and blinkered human beings, who can be of greater benefit not only to the economy, but also to our friends, our children and our spouses."
the swing to employability and training in universities is affecting the responsibility we all have in being reasonable. he writes better than me. I quite liked it. I want you to enjoy the broadening of what you receive, not just your specialist subject.